Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (64 page)

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Authors: Niall Ferguson

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But Buchan, like Churchill, detected an heir to this legacy, on the other side of the Atlantic.
... There are on the globe only two proven large-scale organizations of social units, the United States and the British Empire. The latter is [no longer] for export ... But the United States ... is the supreme example of a federation in being ... If the world is ever to have prosperity and peace, there must be some kind of federation – I will not say of democracies, but of States which accept the reign of Law. In such a task she seems to me to be the predestined leader.
 
Allowing for wartime rhetoric, there is more than a little truth in that. And yet the empire that rules the world today is both more and less than its British begetter. It has a much bigger economy, many more people, a much larger arsenal. But it is an empire that lacks the drive to export its capital, its people and its culture to those backward regions which need them most urgently and which, if they are neglected, will breed the greatest threats to its security. It is an empire, in short, that dare not speak its name. It is an empire in denial.
The former American Secretary of State Dean Acheson famously said that Britain had lost an empire but failed to find a role. Perhaps the reality is that the Americans have taken our old role without yet facing the fact that an empire comes with it. The technology of overseas rule may have changed – the Dreadnoughts may have given way to F-15s. But like it or not, and deny it who will, empire is as much a reality today as it was throughout the three hundred years when Britain ruled, and made, the modern world.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 
A
book like this is, more than most, the product of a collective effort. Although many of the people I wish to thank here thought they were working for a production company or a channel with the objective of making a television series, they were always contributing towards these printed pages as well.
In the first instance, I would like to thank Janice Hadlow, the head of History at Channel 4, at whose initiative both book and series came into being. Also present at the creation was her deputy, Hamish Mykura, who was originally the Series Producer. At Blakeway Productions, I owe an immense debt to Denys Blakeway, the Executive Producer; Charles Miller, Hamish Mykura’s successor as Series Producer; Melanie Fall, the Series Associate Producer; Helen Britton and Rosie Schellenberg, the Assistant Producers; Grace Chapman, the Series Researcher; Alex Watson, Joanna Potts and Rosalind Bentley, the Researchers; Emma Macfarlane, the Production Co-ordinator; Clare Odgers, the Production Manager; and Kate Macky, the Office Manager.
I learned an immense amount about how to tell a story from the three directors who worked on
Empire
: Russell Barnes, Adrian Pennink and David Wilson. I am also indebted to Dewald Aukema, Tim Cragg, Vaughan Matthews and Chris Openshaw, the cameramen; Dhruv Singh, the camera assistant; as well as Adam Prescod, Martin Geissmann, Tony Bensusan and Paul Kennedy, the soundmen.
‘Fixers’ are crucial figures in any television series: special thanks are therefore due to Maxine Walters and Ele Rickham (Jamaica), Matt Bainbridge (United States), Sam Jennings (Australia), Lansana Fofana (Sierre Leone), Goran Musíc (South Africa), Alan Harkness (Zambia), Nicky Sayer (Zanzibar), Funda Odemis (Turkey), Toby Sinclair and Reinee Ghosh (India).
For various acts of kindness and assistance I would also like to thank Alric, Nasir, the Principal of Lamartinière College, Joan Abrahams, Richard and Jane Aitken, Gourab K. Banerji, Rod Beattie, Professor A. Chaterjee, Dayn Cooper, Tom Cunningham, Steve Dodd, Eric Doucot, Tessa Fleischer, Rob Fransisco, Penny Fustle, Alan Harkness, Peter Jacques, Pastor Hendric James, Jean François Lesage, Swapna Liddle, Neil McKendrick, Ravi Manet, John Manson, Bill Markham, Said Suleiman Mohammed, George Mudavanhu, Chief Mukuni, Gremlin Napier, Tracy O’Brian, Adolph Oppong, Mabvuto Phiri, Victoria Phiri, G. S. Rawat, Ludi Schulze, His Excellency Viren Shah, Mark Shaw, Ratanjit Singh, Jane Skinner, Mary Slattery, Iona Smith, Simon Smith, Angus Stevens, Colin Steyn, Philip Tetley, Bishop Douglas Toto, Lieutenant Chris Watt and Elria Wessels.
Writers need good agents; I have been lucky enough to have Clare Alexander, Sally Riley and all at Gillon Aitken, as well as Sue Ayton at Knight Ayton. At Penguin, thanks are due in particular to Anthony Forbes-Watson, Helen Fraser, Cecilia Mackay, Richard Marston and Andrew Rosenheim. Above all, I would like to thank my editor, Simon Winder, whose enthusiasm and encouragement have been above and beyond the call of duty.
Without the support of my colleagues at Jesus College, Oxford, and the Oxford History Faculty, I would not have been able to find the time to write this book and certainly not to make the series. In particular, I would like to thank Bernhard Fulda, Felicity Heal and Turlough Stone.
Finally, many members of my family have helped me to find out more about my own imperial past. I would particularly like to thank my mother and father, Molly and Campbell Ferguson, my grandmother, May Hamilton, my parents-in-law Ken and Vivienne Douglas and my cousin Sylvia Peters in Canada. Above all, I need to thank Susan, Felix, Freya and Lachlan, who had to soldier on at home – like so many families before them – while Father did his bit for the Empire.
In a venture so collaborative, the scope for human error is inevitably widened. A number of attentive readers kindly wrote to point out slips in the hardback edition. In particular, I should like to thank the hawk-eyed Mr. C. W. Haigh. I nevertheless take full responsibility for any mistakes that have survived.
Jesus College, Oxford
July 2003
 
ILLUSTRATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 
Photographic acknowledgements are given in parentheses. Every effort has been made to contact all copyright holders. The publishers will be happy to make good in future editions any errors or omissions brought to their attention.
1.
Agnes Ferguson with her family at Glenrock, c. 1911 – 21 (by courtesy of Campbell Ferguson)
2.
French and Portuguese ships off Buttugar, engraving by Theodore de Bry, for Jacques le Moyne de Morgues, Navigatio in Braziliam, 1562 (Musée de la Marine, Paris/The Art Archive)
3.
Thomas ‘Diamond’ Pitt, portrait by John Vanderbank, c. 1710 – 20 (private collection)
4.
‘George Clive with his Family and an Indian Maidservant’, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1765 – 6 (Gemäldegalerie, Berlin/© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kultbesitz/ Jörg P Anders)
5.
‘The Mast House at Blackwall’, by William Daniell, 1803 (© National Maritime Museum, London)
6.
Eight Gurkhas, group portrait by member(s) of the Ghulam Ali Khan Family, Delhi, c. 1815 (The Gurkha Museum, Winchester)
7.
‘Colonel James Todd Travelling by Elephant with his Cavalry & Sepoys’, painting by anonymous East India Company artist, eighteenth century (Victoria & Albert Museum/Bridgeman Art Library)
8.
Slaves below decks, watercolour sketch by Lieutenant Meynell, 1844 – 6 (© National Maritime Museum, London)
9.
Sugar plantation in the south of Trinidad, by C. Bauer, c. 1850 (private collection/Bridgeman Art Library)
10.
‘Attack on Bunker’s Hill, with the Burning of Charles Town’, American School, 1783 or after (Gift of Edgar Williams and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch. Photograph © Board of Trustees, National Gallery of Art, Washington)
11.
‘Flogging of the Convict Charles Maher’, sketch by J. L., 1823, from Recollections of Thirteen Years’ Residence, by Robert Jones (Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney [Shelfmark: Safe 1/2d. pl3. p.43])
12.
‘A Government Jail Gang at Sydney’, by Augustus Earle, 1830 (© National Maritime Museum, London)
13.
Slaves in chains, Zanzibar, nineteenth century (Bojan Brecelji/Corbis)
14.
An Itinerant Preacher in India, illustration by Anon., nineteenth century (United Society for the Propagation of the Gospel/Eileen Tweedy/The Art Archive)
15.
David Livingstone, photograph by Maull & Co., c. 1864 – 5 (by courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London)
16.
‘The Relief of Lucknow 1857: Jessie’s Dream’, by Frederick Goodall, 1858 (Sheffield City Art Galleries/Bridgeman Art Library)
17.
‘Passing the Cable on Board the
Great Eastern’
, illustration by Robert Dudley from
The Atlantic Telegraph,
by William Howard Russell, 1866 (Science & Society Picture Library)
18.
Indian army with elephants, 1897 (Public Record Office Image Library [Ref. COPY I/430])
19.
Steamships on the Hugli River being loaded and unloaded, Calcutta, 1900 (Hulton Archive)
20.
Lord Curzon and His Highness the Nizam at Aina-Khana, the Palace of Maharaja Peshkai, c. 1900 (Hulton Archive)
21.
Grand Procession past the Red Fort during the Delhi Durbar, 1903 (©The British Library [Ref. 430/78(30)])
22.
Aurobindo Ghose
23.
The victors of Tel-el-Kebir: Scottish troops round the Sphinx, Giza, 1882 (Bettmann/Hulton Archive)
24.
Hiram Maxim demonstrating the Maxim gun, c. 1880 (© Bettmann/Corbis)
25.
The dead at Omdurman, 1898 (by courtesy of the Director, National Army Museum, London [Neg 21206])
26.
Churchill bound for England, 1899 (© Bettmann/Corbis)
27.
Dead bodies on Spion Kop, Natal, 1900 (Hulton Archive)
28.
French cartoon criticizing Boer War concentration camps, by Jean Veber, from L’Assiette au Beurre, 28 September 1901 (Archives Charmet/Bridgeman Art Library)
29.
A Spectre in the Light of Day, cartoon from the front cover of
Der Wahre Jacob,
11 September 1900 (AKG London)
30.
‘Our Allies’, French postcard showing English and Hindu Soldiers, Nantes, 1916 (private collection/AKG London)
31.
T. E. Lawrence, photograph by B. E. Leeson, 1917 (by courtesy of the National Portait Gallery, London)
32.
Sketch of Konyu-Hintok cutting, Thailand, 1942, by Allied PoW Jack Chalker (courtesy Jack Chalker)
33.
Japanese cartoon inciting Indians to throw off British rule, c. 1942 (Imperial War Museum, Department of Printed Books)
34.
‘Double Nine: Allied Teamwork Wins the Game’, Cuban caricature by Conrado Massaguer (© Estate of Conrado Massaguer /Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, New York/Bridgeman Art Library)
35.
Colonel Gamal Abdel-Nasser amid crowds during a demonstration against the proposed dissolution of the Revolutionary Council, Egypt, 29 March 1954 (Hulton Archive)
36.
Blockade of Port Said during the Suez Crisis, 19 November 1956 (© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
The following is not intended as a comprehensive bibliography of imperial history, which would occupy an excessive number of pages. Rather, it is intended to indicate the principal works on which I have drawn in my research, and to acknowledge my debt to their authors, as well as to provide suggestions for ‘further reading’.
GENERAL
 
Abernethy, David B.,
The Dynamics of Global Dominance: European Overseas Empires 1415 – 1980
(New Haven, 2001)
Brown, Judith M. and Louis, Wm. Roger (eds.),
The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. IV: The Twentieth Century
(Oxford/New York, 1999)
Canny, Nicholas (ed.),
The Oxford History of the British Empire, vol. I: The Origins of Empire
(Oxford/New York, 1998)
Fieldhouse, David,
The Colonial Empires
(London, 1966)
Harlow, Barbara and Carter, Mia,
Imperialism and Orientalism: A Documentary Sourcebook
(Oxford/ Malden, Massachusetts, 1999)
Hyam, Ronald,
Britain’s Imperial Century, 1815 – 1914
(Basingstoke, 1993)

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